Oxygen makes up a large part of the atmosphere. When people are scared or nervous, they take a deep breath to calm themselves so they can face their fears. As younger children, our mothers told us to take a deep breath and calm down whenever we became too excited so we could focus and concentrate on anything from homework to telling a story. This is all common sense, right? But can meditation, taking a series of deep breaths and calming the mind, help with weight loss and fitness?
Muscles need increased oxygen to perform at higher levels demanded by exercise. Too often, people become obsessed with lifting an extreme amount of weight or doing cardiovascular activity that is above their fitness level. When this happens, people are likely to become short of breath or even hold their breath to get through a difficult exercise series. However, this makes exercise even more difficult as the body is being deprived of necessary oxygen and cannot work as effectively.
Meditation is a large part of exercise regimens such as Yoga. The goal of meditation is to calm the mind through breathing and focusing the mind on a single thought. By concentrating on breathing and focusing on taking long deep breaths, people are less likely to hold their breath and take deeper more cleansing breaths. This means that lungs are filled with more oxygen than usual and more carbon dioxide is expelled through meditative breathing. Since oxygen is important to muscles and carbon dioxide is toxic if held inside, the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide through meditative breathing leaves people muscles more nourished and they feel more refreshed.
Stress is also blamed for weight gain and health problems. People have busy lives complicated by work, family and obligations. By having so many things to focus on in one day, the mind races to keep up with everything, heart rates rise and people feel fatigued even if they have not exerted themselves through exercise. Mediation provides a focus for the mind, causing it to slow down by focusing on breathing. Once the mind slows down, muscles slowly start to relax and heart rates drop. Toxins from tense muscles are released into the body. The increase in oxygen from taking long, deep, meditative breaths moves these toxins through the body and they are expelled with each breath, leaving behind a healthier and more relaxed mind and body.
Once the body and mind are more relaxed, and more nourished by oxygen, exercise routines are more easily followed and exercised become easier to do. Since tight and oxygen-deprived muscles cannot perform at the same level as relaxed, oxygen-rich muscles can, it can be more difficult to lift weights or complete a cardiovascular exercise routine without first meditating and breathing deeply. Also, since exercising releases invigorating endorphins, some people find it difficult to relax and even sleep after exercising. Since meditation restores oxygen to the body, eliminates toxins and calms the mind, it can also be very effective after exercise to relax the body and help fall asleep.